Echinacea is a native plant of North America and traditionally is used to combat cold, flu, cough, sore throats and many other ailments. Today, Echinacea is among the most frequently utilized medicinal herbs around the world for use in supplements and personal care formulations. The consumption of Echinacea has significantly increased in Europe and North America, with a market share of about 10% of the herbal industry in the United States (Rawls 1996). In Russia, E. purpurea tops are mixed with animal feeds to improve the natural resistance of cattle to diseases, and improve milk production and quality. Numerous attempts have been underway in some non-traditional Echinacea growing countries, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East to introduce cultivation, processing, and marketing. Today, E. purpurea in the markets originates solely from cultivation, while E. angustifolia, E. pallida, E. paradoxa, E. tenneseensis, and E. sanguinea raw materials are sourced either from partial cultivation or totally collected from the wild.
Among the many novel natural products isolated from E. angustifolia are a series of diacetylenic amides. A complex mixture containing at least twelve different acetylenic amides can be obtained by supercritical fluid extraction of fresh dried E. angustifolia roots. In addition to its properties described above, these amides have been shown to be active against the larvae of mosquito species Aedes aegypti. These amides have also been found to be active against neonates of the corn bollworm Helicoverpa zea. 
Investigations of the pharmacological and biological activities of purported Echinacea extracts have frequently shown them to be of widely differing character. With the evolution of botanical products, there has been an increasing demand for Echinacea having consistent and defined pharmacological properties. While it would be advantageous to artificially synthesize Echinacea extracts in order to achieve better consistency, to date such attempts have been unsuccessful.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing ynamides.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing diacetylenic amides.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing diacetylenic amides that provides for economical, easy, and high yield processing.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing pure diacetylenic amides that are natural constituents of Echinacea extracts.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing pure form diacetylenic amides that are present as natural constituents of Echinacea angustifolia, but in mixtures.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a method and means of synthesizing N-(2-methylpropyl)-2E-undecene-8,10-diynamide.
The method and means of accomplishing each of the above objectives as well as others will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows hereafter.